From the cages of Long Kesh in the 1970s, to the lecture halls and classrooms of NUI Galway this century, a love of writing and a passionate belief in the importance of education has been central in the life of Paddy McMenamin.
From membership of the Provisional IRA, to car factory worker, to student, then teacher, and now published author, all is chronicled in Paddy’s autobiography, From Armed Struggle To Academia, which will be launched in Galway in Keanes of Oranmore tomorrow night Friday at 7.30.
Originally from the Turf Lodge area of West Belfast, Paddy is now based in Galway, and has been living in Oranmore since 2005. So what prompted him to write his life’s story?
“I’ve always had a grá for writing going way back. I’ve always loved English literature,” Paddy told The Advertiser recently, “but I felt about the seventies, about Belfast, that thing about wars, that it’s the generals and the politicians who write about it, not so much those who fought. I felt there was a need for ordinary people to express themselves and say what it was like. That was always in my mind, and my wife encouraged me to just write it down.”
In From Armed Struggle To Academia, Paddy details his reasons for leaving the IRA. “There was no guilt. I talked to people in the Army Council, and contrary to what people think, you can just actually walk away, and I did,” he says.
He remained active in Sinn Féin during the Hunger Strikes, but found politics “wasn’t for me”. In the years after, Paddy would work in a car factory, but when the factory closed down in 2003, and he took redundancy, that long desire to write, and his interest in education, had a new outlet.
In 2005, Paddy entered NUI Galway, eventually completing BAs in English and History. He then spent an Erasmus year in Malta, did the TEFL course, and, over five summers, worked in one of the many language schools on the Mediterranean Island.
In 2009 Paddy did his teacher training in Garbally College, and qualified as a secondary school teacher in 2010, before returning to NUIG in 2011 to complete a Masters in History. He worked with the State exam commission, and for five years marked Junior Cert papers and individuated at sittings of the Leaving Cert.
“Education is everything. My mum was an innocent wee country woman, left school at 13, used to walk to school in her bare feet, but she valued education. When I passed the Eleven-Plus, she was so proud of me. When I left school early she was disappointed.
“I believe every young person deserves a place in university. I still don’t like the stats where 90 per cent in Ballymun don’t go to Trinity, but 90 per cent in Ballsbridge do. I think that’s unfair. I know there are different reasons, but my grandchildren in Donegal, the first of them are now in third level, and I was the first in our family ever to go to third level.
"You can’t emphasise enough how education informs us. Going into third level gives you a path in life, a direction. It delivers you into the good jobs, and it’s also good for the mind, it's good for the soul, and you have to put the effort in. Education is everything.”
